Abstract
Where in earlier work diachronic change is used to explain away exceptions to typologies, linguistic typologists have started to make use of explicit diachronic models as explanations for typological distributions. A topic that lends itself for this approach especially well is that of negation. In this article, we assess the explanatory value of a specific hypothesis, the Negative Existential Cycle (NEC), on the distribution of negative existential strategies (“types”) in 106 Indo-European languages. We use Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods to infer posterior distributions of transition rates and parameters, thus applying rational methods to construct and evaluate a set of different models under which the attested typological distribution could have evolved. We find that the frequency of diachronic processes that affect negative existentials outside of the NEC cannot be ignored—the unidirectional NEC alone cannot explain the evolution of negative existential strategies in our sample. We show that non-unidirectional evolutionary models, especially those that allow for different and multiple transitions between strategies, provide better fit. In addition, the phylogenetic modeling is impacted by the expected skewed distribution of negative existential strategies in our sample, pointing out the need for densely sampled and family-based typological research.
Highlights
The negative existential domain, the expression of negated existential statements, may appear to be a simple, unremarkable, area of grammar. It involves the deployment of the usual means used to express the affirmative existential with the standard verbal negation marker. This leads to clauses such as (1), from Swedish (Indo-European, Germanic), where the structural coding means involved in expressing existence are deployed alongside the Swedish standard verbal negation marker inte
The six types are defined based on a comparison of the negation marker(s) used to negate verbal predicates and the expression of negation in negative existential clauses: are they identical? Distinct? Is the verbal negation marker used as the negative existential copula, or do we find some intermediate situation? Croft’s synchronic typology has been successful as a cross-linguistic taxonomy of negativeexistential constructions and fits well with other variables in the typology of negation
We use the results of this modeling to illustrate our answer to another question: what is the relationship between rational quantitative and statistical modeling approaches and “traditional,” analytic approaches in studies of morphosyntactic change and diachronic typology? In a way, we explore the feasibility of phylogenetic diachronic typology; how many languages, or how big of a language family does one need to investigate a complex typological hypothesis? our answer to these questions is limited to the Indo-European family and to our current sample, as Section 2 elaborates
Summary
The negative existential domain, the expression of negated existential statements, may appear to be a simple, unremarkable, area of grammar In many languages, it involves the deployment of the usual means used to express the affirmative existential with the standard verbal negation marker. This marker is not used to negate verbal predicates, but may be used to negate other domains of nominal predication such as predicate location This is illustrated in (2) from Turkish, where the negative existential marker yok is deployed, but not the Turkish standard verbal negation marker, a suffix. In another construction type, the standard negation marker is used as the only marker of negative existence, without the existential marker used in affirmative existential clauses. The negation marker ’ikai is used in (3a) to negate the main verbal predicate, and in (3b) as the sole marker of negative existence, without another existential marker
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